New Projects Are Furever

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Spring must be in the air, because this weeks new projects are a little bit scandalous: a documentary about preserving our furrier friends, sexting, and gunshot wounds oozing Skittles. Tantalized? Check ‘em all out in our round-up of favorite new projects, below, then find even more on our Discover projects page.

Furever is a documentary about the amazing stories and true characters behind the truly fascinating phenomenon of “pet preservation” (a nice way of saying “freeze-drying dead animals you can’t cope with losing”). Amy Finkel, the film’s director, is a cheery foil to this beguilingly dark subject matter. I am eager to see more of these worlds this documentary inhabits — pastel women on floral couches, their stiff pets motionless and glassy-eyed, not quite at rest in teary laps. And then Mac, the pet preserver, all straightforward and dubious about the whole thing, worrying about his clients but swelling with pride over seemingly both his impeccable work and the kind of money he is raking in out of his almost-ressurections. It feels wrong but then everyone seems desperate for it, and happy about it. They need it, even though, like so many things, we wonder if it should be kept from them. I literally had a nightmare about the project video after I saw it, wherein people were doing this with human beings. Watch the video and you could be haunted, too! — Meaghan O.

Spudnik Press is a Chicago-based community printmaking cooperative that offers subsidized studio rentals, workshops, equipment, and exhibition space to local artists, enabling a wide variety of printmakers to, well, actually make prints. They’ve already raised over half the funds to maintain the printshop, but they need additional dough for electrical renovations, press repairs, and communal tools. (Apparently also for “door handles.” Seems useful.) Their project video features fly intergalactic graphics and their rewards are wonderfully reasonable. $10 for a set of mini prints! $30 for a harmonica workshop! $50 for relief printmaking class! Pledge and print! — Elisabeth H.

At first glance this LA-based roommate trio looks pretty innocent, but get two minutes into their video and you’ll see the lurking madness that fuels their work (and by “you’ll see” I mean you must see!). They call themselves The Imps of Marge and Fletch, a creative group that’s one part photographer, one part producer, and one part art director, and they’ve been working together for years creating elaborate conceptual photos that they turn into calendars. Think murder scenes with gunshot wounds that ooze Skittles and men throwing money at a game of bulldog Scrabble. Well, these guys have a new visual story to tell, and this time it’s coming in book form. Just — get ready for the patsy messiah. — Daniella J.

It’s about time someone turned Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales into a board game, and this one looks devilishly good. Players each take on the role of the Pardoner with the goal of “saving” as many Pilgrims as possible by selling indulgences. But watch out — the Seven Deadly Sins threaten Pilgims and Pardoners alike! Throw in some phony relics and the stakes get even higher. If you have ever toiled over trying to read The Canterbury Tales in the original Middle English, and then tried to write an essay discussing themes in three or more of the tales, and then realized that maybe you should not have put all your trust in the Sparknotes version — well, let’s just say it’s somewhat cathartic to have all that distilled into a game of strategy. — Cindy A.

I never thought I’d ever pay for a text message, but Denver’s Gauntlet Hair have me contemplating it. And not just a text message, a sext message, which I normally wouldn’t pay for, or be apart of (re: Brett Favre), however, seeming as the bands first two singles on Forest Family and Firetalk are both kind of badass, I just might help fund their debut record, and in turn, receive a darling sext message. All in a days work. — Mike M.